bièrevsbureConfusable pair

Which to use

“bière” and “bure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,761
“bière” frequency rank
#29,261
“bure” frequency rank
32022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bière bure
Definition Boisson alcoolique fabriquée à partir des parties glucidiques de végétaux et d’eau, soumise à fermentation. Étoffe grossière faite de laine rousse.

Where the eye mixes bière and bure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bière
4 ch
bure

Look-alike desk: bière vs bure

A purely visual mix-up. bière (\bjɛʁ\) and bure (\byʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bière is recorded at frequency rank #2,761, classified as anoun, pronounced \bjɛʁ\. bure is at rank #29,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 32022, this pair ranks #300,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bière vs bure

Shared letters: ber. Private to "bière": . Private to "bure": u.

"bière" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "bure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • burebbure · brue · buer · burre · ubre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bière" and "bure" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bjɛʁ\ versus \byʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bière" vs "bure" - which ranks higher?
"bière" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,761 in our French list, against #29,261 for "bure". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bière" and "bure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bure vs bury". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #300,071 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list